Page No 74:

Question 1:

What did
Mr Petronski’s letter say?

Answer:

Mr
Pertronski’s letter said that Wanda would not come to school
anymore. They were moving away to a big
city. He also said that there, nobody would ask them why they had
funny names because there were plenty of funny names in the city.

Page No 74:

Question 2:

Is
Miss Mason angry with the class, or is she unhappy and upset?

Answer:

Miss
Mason was unhappy and upset. She said that
she was sure that none of the boys and girls of Room Thirteen would
purposely and deliberately hurt anyone’s feelings. She
preferred to think that what was said was said in thoughtlessness.
She thought of it as a very unfortunate thing to have happened and
wanted everybody in the class to think about it.

Page No 74:

Question 3:

How
does Maddie feel after listening to the note from Wanda’s
father?

Answer:

After
listening to the note from Wanda’s father, Maddie had a very
sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach. She could not concentrate
when she tried to prepare her lessons. She had not enjoyed listening
to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet. However,
she had always stood by silently and that was as bad as what Peggy
had done. She had thought that they were being mean.
She could put herself in Wanda’s shoes. Later, she even called
herself a coward.

Page No 74:

Question 4:

What
does Maddie want to do?

Answer:

Maddie
wanted to tell Wanda that she had not meant to hurt her feelings. She
felt that she had to do something, whether
Peggy felt badly or not. She had to find Wanda. She had the feeling
that Wanda might not have moved away as yet. She thought that Peggy
would climb the Boggins Heights with her, and together, they would
tell Wanda that she had won the contest; that they thought she was
smart; and that the hundred dresses were beautiful.

Page No 76:

Question 1:

What
excuses does Peggy think up for her behaviour? Why?

Answer:

Peggy
had told Maddie with pretended casualness
that both of them should go and see if Wanda had left the town or
not. The excuse that Peggy thought up for her behaviour was that she
never called Wanda a foreigner or made fun of her name. She also said
that she never thought Wanda had even the sense to know that they
were making fun of her. She thought Wanda was too dumb. However, she
appreciated the fact that Wanda could draw so well. She was making
such excuses because she was feeling bad about what had happened,
thinking that it probably was her teasing because of which Wanda left
the school.

Page No 76:

Question 2:

What
are Maddie’s thoughts as they go to Boggins Heights?

Answer:

Maddie
hoped that they would find Wanda. She wanted to tell her that they
were sorry that they had picked on her; and
that how wonderful the whole school thought she was. She also thought
of requesting her not to leave the school. She even thought that she
and Peggy would fight anybody who was not nice to her.

Page No 76:

Question 3:

Why
does Wanda’s house remind Maddie of Wanda’s blue dress?

Answer:

Wanda’s
house looked shabby but clean. It reminded Maddie of Wanda’s
blue dress because it was also very shabby and faded, but clean.

Page No 77:

Question 4:

What
does Maddie think hard about? What important decision does she come
to?

Answer:

Maddie
was not happy as she could not find Wanda at her home. She could not
sleep that night. She thought about Wanda, her faded blue dress,
and the little house she lived in. She also thought about the hundred
glowing pictures, which were all lined up in the classroom. At last,
Maddie thought really hard and after a long time, she reached an
important decision. She decided that she would never stand by and say
nothing again. If she ever heard anybody picking on someone because
they were funny looking or because they had strange names, then she
would speak up. She did not even mind losing Peggy’s friendship
over it. She knew she could not make things right with Wanda.
However, she had decided that in the future, she would never make
anybody else unhappy again.

Page No 79:

Question 1:

What did
the girls write to Wanda?

Answer:

The
girls wrote a friendly letter to Wanda telling her
that she had won the contest. They also wrote how pretty her drawings
were. They asked her if she liked the place where she was living and
if she liked her new teacher. They wanted to say that they were
sorry. However, they ended up with just writing a friendly letter.
They signed it with lots of X’s for love.

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Question 2:

Did
they get a reply? Who was more anxious for
a reply, Peggy or Maddie? How do you know?

Answer:

No,
they did not get a reply. Maddie was more anxious for a reply as she
thought a lot about it. She would put
herself to sleep making speeches about Wanda and defending her from
great crowds of girls who were trying to tease her. Before Wanda
could press her lips together in a tight line, which she did before
answering, Maddie would cry out and ask everybody to stop and then,
everybody would feel ashamed the way she felt. Peggy, on the other
hand, had begun to forget about the whole affair. This shows that
Maddie was more anxious for a reply than Peggy.

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Question 3:

How
did the girls know that Wanda liked them even though they had teased
her?

Answer:

The
girls came to know that Wanda liked them even though they had teased
her as she had asked Miss Mason to give the green dress with red
trimming to Peggy and the blue one to Maddie. Later when Maddie
looked at the drawing very carefully, she realized that the dress had
a face and a head, which looked like her own self. The
head and face in the drawing given to Peggy looked just like Peggy.
That is why the girls knew that Wanda liked them even though they had
teased her.

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Question 4:

What
important decision did Maddie make? Why did she have to think hard to
do so?

Answer:

The
important decision that Maddie made was that she would never stand by
and say nothing again. If she ever heard anybody picking on someone
because they were funny-looking or because
they had strange names, she would speak up. She did not even mind
losing Peggy’s friendship over it. She knew she could not make
things right with Wanda. However, she had decided that in the future,
she would never make anybody else unhappy again.

She
was unhappy that she could not find Wanda at her home. She could not
sleep that night. She thought about Wanda, her faded blue dress, and
the little house she lived in. She also thought about the hundred
glowing pictures, which were all lined up in the classroom. She was
feeling guilty of not having said anything when everybody else was
teasing Wanda. It was her guilt that made her think very hard and
arrive at the important decision.

Page No 80:

Question 5:

Why
do you think Wanda gave Maddie and Peggy the drawings of the dresses?
Why are they surprised?

Answer:

Maddie
and Peggy had written a letter to Wanda. Though it was a friendly
letter, Wanda must have understood the emotions behind the writing of
that letter. Therefore, Wanda’s
request that two of her drawings be given to Maddie and Peggy could
be her way of telling them that she had forgiven and forgotten.

When
Maddie and Peggy did not receive a reply to their letter for a long
time, they felt that perhaps Wanda was still hurt and angry.
Therefore, they were surprised when they came to know that Wanda had
asked Miss Mason to give them two of her drawings.

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Question 6:

Do
you think Wanda really thought the girls were teasing her? Why or why
not?

Answer:

Wanda
would have been aware that the other children were teasing her. She
would have known that the children intended to make fun of her
poverty, and would have laughed at her whatever she might have said.
This could have been the reason for her exaggerating everything
whenever she answered their questions.

Page No 80:

Question 1:

Here
are thirty adjectives describing human qualities. Discuss them with
your partner and put them in the two word webs (given below)
according to whether you think they show positive or negative
qualities. You can consult a dictionary if you are not sure of the
meanings of some of the words. You may also add to the list
the positive or negative ‘pair’ of a given words.